Seven arrested on drug charges tied to Plantation pharmacy

July 8, 2011|By Sofia Santana and Bob LaMendola, Sun Sentinel

Five family members are among those charged in a federal indictment as being part of a drug and money laundering conspiracy centered on a Plantation pharmacy that was one of the top dispensaries in South Florida for the pain killer oxycodone.

Authorities announced the arrests Friday of married couple Daniel and Francine Sweet, who owned Focus on Health Rx at 5301 W. Broward Blvd. The business opened in October 2007 and was dissolved in March.

Also arrested were the couple's daughter, Jessica Marshall; son, Benjamin Meltzer; son-in-law, Rony Cabral; and pharmacy technician George Garcia. Authorities on Friday were still trying to find the seventh person charged in the indictment: Thomas Baptiste.

The arrests come 14 months after authorities charged four alleged drug dealers in the same case, accusing them of delivering stacks of fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone pills to the pharmacy from April 2009 to May 2010.

Frandy Jonace, Woody Rimpel, Emanuel Sterling and Yould Blanfort all were convicted of drug charges and received prison sentences last year ranging from seven to 10 years.

At the peak of its business, the pharmacy filled 72 prescriptions in one day, amounting to 13,387 pills dispensed and $30,532 raked in, according to the new indictment.

From April 2009 to May 2010, the pharmacy made about $2 million in sales from oxycodone, about half of which investigators say was deposited into several bank accounts.

In that same period the pharmacy's handling of about 1,038,560 oxycodone pills was 59 percent greater than the total number of pills ordered in the same period by neighboring CVS, Publix and Walgreens pharmacies, authorities said.

The case marks one of the largest investigations aimed at dismantling South Florida's infamous pill mill industry, made up of an intricate network of rogue pain management clinics and the pharmacies that do business with them.

The industry has turned Broward and Palm Beach counties into the nation's ground zero for prescription drug trafficking and abuse, with the opium-based oxycodone the main draw.

It is the main ingredient in such drugs as OxyContin, Percocet and Roxicodone. In 2009, the most recent year for which annual statistics are available, the drug was blamed in 289 fatal overdoses in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The Sweet family also owned and operated Total Care Pharmacy, in Coconut Creek, and The Village Pharmacies, based in Pembroke Pines — all of which were dissolved in March, state records show.